Ninjas in Pyjamas have parted ways with Snappi, leaving their Counter-Strike 2 roster without an in-game leader.
On Monday, August 31, Ninjas in Pyjamas announced the departure of Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, leaving their Counter-Strike 2 roster without an in-game leader.
The announcement comes shortly after reports surfaced that Ninjas in Pyjamas are scouting for a new in-game leader, with the same rumours suggesting NIP are also looking to replace another player soon.
The departure of the 36-year-old marks the end of his 19-month stay with the team, whom he joined in January 2025 as part of a major roster overhaul.
Originally, Snappi took over the reins from Alejandro “alex” Masanet, following Ninjas in Pyjamas’ disappointing 12th-14th place finish at the Perfect World Shanghai Major at the end of 2024 and a long streak of underwhelming results prior to that.
However, even with the experienced Dane as an IGL, success has been hard to come by for the Swedish squad.
On Ninjas in Pyjamas, Snappi did not win many notable events, with most of the team’s success coming from lesser tournaments, such as Fragadelphia, Roman Imperium Cup, RES Showdown, and Stake Ranked.
Their most memorable big-event placement came at PGL Astana 2025, when Ninjas in Pyjamas reached the quarterfinals.
This season has been largely unsuccessful for Ninjas in Pyjamas and their S-Tier trophy hunt, as they have featured in only two big events: Intel Extreme Masters Krakow and the Esports World Cup.
They have not made much noise in either, with 17th-20th and 17th-24th place finishes, respectively.
Otherwise, NIP have won gold medals at RES Showdown Spring, Roman Imperium Cup VI, and Stake Ranked Episode 2, along with two bronze medals at CCT Season 3 Global Finals and Stake Ranked Episode 3.
All that, however, was not enough for NIP to break into the tier-one circuit, as they have remained ranked sub-20 on the Valve Regional Standings for most of the last two years.
Besides NIP’s struggles in their competitive endeavours, Snappi has not shown much individually either.
He ends his tenure with NIP with a 0.92 performance rating, and 0.84 against top-20 ranked teams.
This is a drop from the Dane’s previous stints, notably with ENCE, with whom he averaged a 0.92 rating against top-20 ranked opponents.
With Snappi out of the roster, Ninjas in Pyjamas are down to four active players, four days away from their next scheduled tournament, Stake Ranked Episode 4 Closed Qualifier, which is set to begin on September 3.
As reported, more changes should follow Snappi’s departure; however, those have yet to be announced.
Mark Prezelj
Esports Betting Analyst
Mark Prezelj is a Slovenian esports betting analyst with over 3,500 articles at EsportBet and the founder of Lines64.com — someone who has been reading odds longer than most readers have been watching esports.
